The room was silent, except for the faint rustling of leaves outside the small window. Buji sat at the edge of the bed with his back hunched and his fingers slightly grazing the cover of the pamphlet in his hands. The bold title on the book, "Why Be a Hunter," stared back at him like a challenge, daring him to unfold what it held within
The events of the day, starting from his ridicule to his isolation, and most of all, his betrayal, lingered in his mind, but he was going to distract himself with the pamphlet. The thoughts may come later, not now.
"Tsk," Buji sighed and flipped open the first page of the pamphlet. His eyes fell on the title of the section Emra had read to him—The Evolution. However, his interest in that section had waned, so he dismissed it with a sigh. The bit he knew could serve. He wanted to gulp down information from other topics as soon as possible. To somehow gain direction, or even clarity.
Taking a deep breath, he flipped open another page. Inked on the page was a statement Buji didn't understand how it related to what he had come to the academy to gain. The words, however, were precise and unyielding.
"Hunters are the frontier between chaos and order. The shield of humanity."
He let the sentence sink in, but there were still the doubts about his capability as a hunter.
If he was going to be protecting humans, then he would have to accept taking huge risks. The idea of being a shield, a protector, the frontier, was not all he sought for now. He felt a little that he should start becoming selfish and care about things that mattered to him alone.
Besides that, he was just Buji. A boy who felt more like a prey than a predator in a world that seemed to constantly remind him of his inadequacy. He would have preferred living life as an orphan to living like a prisoner in a rich man's house.
'Or will they offer me the same fate?'
Buji's thought confused him. Things weren't difficult for him because he was an orphan. Now, he gets to see that difficulties emanate from one's weaknesses or flaws.
Even the poor can live a stress-free life without difficulty. The main deal comes from within man; his inferior self does the job great. One only needs to master their inner self to face fewer difficulties in life. But mastering oneself? That was no small feat.
Buji reasoned that his thoughts were even making things more confusing for him, or so he thought, yet he found it difficult to get off them.
Finally, the next page of the pamphlet, which he held in his back, caught his curiosity and landed him back into reality.
"The Five Hunter Families."
The second section of the book spoke of the five hunter families as the pillar of the hunter's world. There were not just families but had stretched into dynasties, just so as to keep their legacy moving.
The Zin family, he read, was the most powerful and revered of the hunters.
'Interesting.'
They were known for their firm confidence and unmatched ability to handle challenges, even the gravest ones. The mark—a bold Z encased in a circle—is their symbol and also marks their dominance.
Other families like the Nico, Wallos, and Adhit each had their own strengths and legacies. But he was most especially attracted to the third family.
Yin Family.
He had thought that maybe the recommended students were going to be the representatives of this family. 'Or has its name changed? Why were their frames shadowed and blurred?'
The book seems not to know much. But it described it as a cautionary tale, a family once prominent but now erased from the academy's history. "Excised for an abomination," the pamphlet stated at the middle base bottom of the book, cryptically. No further explanation either.
He didn't know what to think about the Yin family. If care is not taken, he might end up like the founder then, except if only he can undertake for himself if need be.
'What was he saying?'
'Nothing.'
Buji then realized he couldn't help but feel a pang of hatred develop in him toward the members of each family, except the Yins, of course. Suddenly, he felt this strong urge within him and uttered a statement.
"I am going to be rich."
That was one of the greatest motivations in Buji's life. He feared failure. He feared rejection. But what did he fear the most?
He had failed. Just moments ago, he was rejected by who he had always taken to be his closest friend. So, what the fuck will motivate him if not the fact that he dreamt never to be poor? And that was his greatest fear.
Poverty!!!
Buji couldn't help but laugh at his own thought. For some reasons, it was stupid. But for many reasons, it was reality visioning from imagination. It was real.
His hands quickly turned over to the next page. And his eyes fell on what interested him the most—money.
He had not taken his time to read about the hunter families. Buji thought that even without reading it, he could get the knowledge someday. But for this next topic, he was going to read every bit of it.
Starting from the title: Hunter Ranks to the last word of the section.
Hunters, according to the pamphlet, were ranked accordingly, starting from D-rank to S-rank. The ranking mostly depends on the inner essence of the individual who awakened it. But in sole reality, it depended on their skill and experience.
"Skill and experience!" Buji exclaimed.
He was misunderstanding everything. He has no skill and has had no experience, so how was it dependent on those factors? But then, his attention was called to the phrase, "sole reality." Meaning that it was judged from the physical interventions undertaken by the hunter.
"Okay," he seemed calm for the moment, returning his gaze to the page, which he studied.
The next thing was how the hunters earn a living. Starting at D-rank, they earned a modest 2,000 Huncoins weekly. The sum seemed enormous to Buji but was described according to the book as merely a starting point for a hunter's earnings.
"Tsk. Just shut up!"
Although hunters couldn't level up to higher ranks, they can hone their skills to fit the feat of higher ranks. His eyes scanned through the explanations made on each rank until it finally landed with the S-rank. His focus still remained on money.
From what he read about each rank, he noticed the income scale increased exponentially with each rank, culminating in 32,000 Huncoins weekly for S-rank hunters. The pamphlet further emphasized that this wasn't just about the money. The ranks represented mastery, respect, and the ability to take on greater challenges.
Buji's eyes lingered on the page. Its further explanation had been that the payments were scheduled weekly since hunters went for raids every week. And each week you failed to raid, no income.
"That's just it. We trade risk in exchange for reward."
However, a hunter's income can also increase based on his accumulation of skills and talents.
Ding! Dingling!!
The words struck Buji's ears in deafening. The idea of earning such wealth was overwhelming, but its path seemed impossibly steep. Could he even make it past D-rank with no talent? A simple D-rank hunter with Slayer as a talent could easily take him down.
'What a shame.'
The thought of money was only becoming excessive for him, so he had to switch over the pages to get access to a new topic:
[Hunters and Dungeon Raids]
He had found a new topic but couldn't read it at the moment. The sound of a ringing object distracted him. His heart skipped a beat.
'Could it be the second reckoning?'
"…"